McCoy confident in Rivers, 'system'

San Diego Chargers board 5 buses at their headquarters to go to the airport for their trip to Denver- Chargers head coach Mike McCoy and his son Luke walk to the lead bus for the trip to the airport.
— Charlie Neuman

San Diego Chargers board 5 buses at their headquarters to go to the airport for their trip to Denver- Chargers head coach Mike McCoy and his son Luke walk to the lead bus for the trip to the airport.
— Charlie Neuman

At the NFL owners meetings in Florida, Mike McCoy unpacked a familiar and confident message.

Philip Rivers is headed toward success, with help from an offensive system that McCoy trusts.

"He should start off where he finished and have the type of year he had last year," McCoy said of Rivers, via ESPN's John Keim. "Our team will only improve. There were a lot of first times for our team also, in a new system. There's things you're learning -- you practice things all the time but they may not be against a certain coverage. He was learning as we were going during the year."

Coaches tend to be upbeat in March, but the results support McCoy.

He is one of 32 NFL head coaches primarily because of his offensive expertise. Interviewing for the Chargers job two winters ago, he must have sold ownership and Tom Telesco on his plans for Rivers and the offense. He had never been a head coach or coached a defense. His prowess on offense got him the job.

Soon after he took over, a swaggering McCoy said he expected Rivers to complete 70 percent of his passes on the season. Rivers went on to complete 69.5 percent, best in the NFL and best of his career.

If I had a dollar for every time McCoy said last spring and summer Rivers would have a "great" or "phenomenal" season, I could buy Rivers a lifetime supply of bolos and boots.

McCoy was dead-on right about Rivers in 2013. Rivers led the team to its first playoff victory in five years. He made the Pro Bowl. It was his best football year, I believe.

"We said the first day sitting here last year [that] Philip Rivers was not the problem," McCoy said Wednesday. "It was everyone else around him playing better. He'll be the first one to tell you also that he needed to play better. He couldn't make certain decisions he made."

What will year two bring for Rivers and the offense? A lot of fun if a Broncos parallel applies.

Denver set an NFL season record for points scored last year. While the Chargers shouldn't be expected to reach those numbers, consider that in year two within a system McCoy installed in 2012, Peyton Manning and teammates cited greater playbook knowledge as a factor in their collective jump.

McCoy had taught Manning a system, yet kept parts of the QB's previous offense; McCoy and Rivers did likewise last year.

The 2013 Broncos enjoyed big returns from a tight end, Julius Thomas, who was in his third NFL season. While not equating Ladarius Green to Thomas in shiftiness, I think it is clear McCoy expects the speedy, third-year tight end to build on his considerable growth of 2013.

When the Chargers hired McCoy, the Broncos promoted quarterbacks coach Adam Gase, who said McCoy groomed him to be a playcaller. McCoy did a similar dance after Ken Whisenhunt left, promoting in Frank Reich a quarterbacks coach who knew his playbook.

"The system's in place," McCoy said. "We put a system in place last year to be there for the long haul."